Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,195
30,136



Phillips today announced an expansion of its Hue line of lights, adding the new Philips Hue Wireless Dimming Kit and Philips Hue white bulb. The dimming kit requires no installation and it integrates seamlessly with existing Hue products, letting customers change the brightness of up to 10 Philips Hue white bulbs at the same time.

Each dimming kit includes one Philips Hue white light bulb and a portable battery operated dimming switch, with additional white bulbs available as a separate purchase. Using the dimming kit is as simple as plugging in one of the Philips bulbs. The switch can be fixed to the wall, much like the Hue Tap, or used as a remote control.

huewirelessdimmingkit-800x385.jpg
Getting ambiance at home has never been so simple; just screw in your bulb and press the dimmer switch to create your own personal dimmable glow. You can use the dimmer switch as a normal wall switch, or take it from the base plate and use it as a remote control for optimal convenience as it can be easily placed anywhere you desire. Plus, you don't have to get off the sofa to dim the lights anymore when watching your favorite TV show; you can even lower the lights from the warmth of your bed.
Philips promises no flickering or buzzing with its dimmer kit, which is a common problem with traditional LED dimming solutions. With the ability to control up to 10 bulbs with one switch, it's possible to adjust an entire room's lighting at once.

philipsdimmerswitch-800x428.jpg

According to Philips, the new Hue Wireless Dimming Kit can connect to existing Philips Hue compatible products through the Philips Hue bridge, so the dimmer switch can be used to control smartphone-connected bulbs like the standard Hue and the Hue Lux.

The Philips Hue wireless dimming kit is priced at $39.95, while Philips Hue white bulbs are priced at $19.95. The dimming kit will be available in stores in North America beginning in September of 2015.

Article Link: Philips Announces New Hue Wireless Dimming Kit
 

ipedro

macrumors 603
Nov 30, 2004
6,199
8,395
Toronto, ON
If you can buy the switches by themselves, I'll be replacing all of my home light switches with these.

I bet on the wrong horse when I purchased a Wink Relay hoping that I could have a screen in each room and Wink light switches everywhere. Wink turned out to be years late to supporting Hue and buggy as hell. Sometimes it works, often times it doesn't. No reason for either one.

I was hoping for Phillips to release their own replacement switch. Now that they did, I'll put an iPad mini on the wall in each major area of my home to control and monitor all of my smart home devices and these switches replacing my existing dumb ones.
 
Last edited:

JamesPDX

Suspended
Aug 26, 2014
1,056
495
USA
I'm really trying to like the LED, but I'm still not seeing the warmer colors and overall lumens. I'm seeing a lot of concentrated intensity, but they're just not throwing a lot of broad-spectrum light. I hope this will improve and not just stop at dimming and an obvious alternative to the CFL. Here, look at this for what I'm prattling-on about: http://bit.ly/1Lx4GHA
 

peterh988

macrumors 6502a
Jun 5, 2011
625
1,028
Have we got to a place yet where the lighting is smart enough to remember it's previous setting when turned off, so that it comes back on with the same colour balance you set it up with?

I'd like to set up a suitable lighting blend say, in my bathroom, and have it work via one of these on/off switches so that it always sparks up at the preset balance. I shouldn't have to teach my mother how to use an iPhone in order to visit the bathroom.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JamesPDX

RMo

macrumors 65816
Aug 7, 2007
1,251
280
Iowa, USA
Phillips Hue HomeKit support is coming in September.

I would be very surprised if these switches — also to be released in September — weren't HomeKit compatible.

Read the tweet again: HomeKit support isn't (necessarily) coming in September; "more details" are coming in September. Who knows how long we'll actually have to wait. I also suspect we'll need a new Hue Bridge to make it work.
 

RMo

macrumors 65816
Aug 7, 2007
1,251
280
Iowa, USA
What's the difference between a hue Lux and a hue white light bulb?

I was wondering the same. Comparing the Lux and Hue wireless dimmer product pages, it appears they are very similar, except the White is a bit brighter at its maximum setting (806 lumens vs. 750), has a wider beam angle (180 deg vs. 150), and a potentially greater CRI (">80" vs "80"). Curiously, they also list the white as an A60 shape and the Lux as an A19, but it's my understanding those are just the metric and imperial names for the same shape/size of bulb (possibly just a quick copy and paste of the data from a European product page into the US one?). It also uses 0.5 W more at maximum brightness than the Lux, probably on account of the wider beam angle and greater brightness.

PS - I also hope we can order the dimmer alone. As someone else mentioned, I really don't want to have to buy more bulbs just to get a dimmer or two--I'll run out of places to put them and already went overboard when the Lux and Tap came out. :)
 

Chrjy

macrumors 65816
May 19, 2010
1,095
2,098
UK
I like what Philips are doing with their Hue range I just wish they'd bring the cost down, for me at least it's just to expensive at this point.
 

RazorD

macrumors 6502
Nov 4, 2004
426
264
Bath, UK
I'd be surprised if HomeKit came with just a firmware update. I'm pretty sure they'll be announcing a new Hue Hub that will be available separately that has HomeKit support.
 

DrEvil152

macrumors newbie
Jun 12, 2012
5
2



Phillips today announced an expansion of its Hue line of lights, adding the new Philips Hue Wireless Dimming Kit and Philips Hue white bulb. The dimming kit requires no installation and it integrates seamlessly with existing Hue products, letting customers change the brightness of up to 10 Philips Hue white bulbs at the same time.

Each dimming kit includes one Philips Hue white light bulb and a portable battery operated dimming switch, with additional white bulbs available as a separate purchase. Using the dimming kit is as simple as plugging in one of the Philips bulbs. The switch can be fixed to the wall, much like the Hue Tap, or used as a remote control.

huewirelessdimmingkit-800x385.jpg
Philips promises no flickering or buzzing with its dimmer kit, which is a common problem with traditional LED dimming solutions. With the ability to control up to 10 bulbs with one switch, it's possible to adjust an entire room's lighting at once.

philipsdimmerswitch-800x428.jpg

According to Philips, the new Hue Wireless Dimming Kit can connect to existing Philips Hue compatible products through the Philips Hue bridge, so the dimmer switch can be used to control smartphone-connected bulbs like the standard Hue and the Hue Lux.

The Philips Hue wireless dimming kit is priced at $39.95, while Philips Hue white bulbs are priced at $19.95. The dimming kit will be available in stores in North America beginning in September of 2015.

Article Link: Philips Announces New Hue Wireless Dimming Kit
A new switch by Plum hopefully will come out in September. It should work with their app. I use iRule to control my Hue and Lux as well as my Lutron IR switch. The problem with Hue is the lights revert to white when turned off. I prefer halogen specs and have my Hue lights set to this on my iPhone app.
 

Pbrutto

macrumors 6502a
Apr 21, 2015
611
1,276
Eastern PA
Not buying anymore lights for my system till hue explains further what they mean by being "committed to getting existing customers HomeKit capable in the fall".....okay, that wasn't exactly what they said months ago, but it was something like that. Love the hue system though, it is one of the only home automation items I own that actually works
 

japanime

macrumors 68030
Feb 27, 2006
2,914
4,835
Japan
What would be amazing — though I imagine impossible — is a Philips switch that overrides our house's built-in switch. My family is always turning off the switch that controls our Hue bulbs, so geofencing and IFTTT recipes never get a chance to do their work.
 

RMo

macrumors 65816
Aug 7, 2007
1,251
280
Iowa, USA
I would like to know this, as well. I bought a Lux, and it wouldn't allow me to set up timers/alarms on it. I returned it. I don't always need a bulb that will show every color in the spectrum at the expense of brightness.

I took a stab at answering this above based on information Philips has provided. The White just looks like a slightly better Lux (a bit brighter, wider beam angle, and possibly better CRI--though it uses a smidgen more power). It's the same price per bulb, too ($20--I believe Lux was $30 when it was introduced so it silently went down in price sometime in the last year), so I wonder if they just plan on replacing the Lux with the White. The one thing that isn't clear is whether they also plan on making a Bridge-based "starter kit" with White like they do with Lux, not that you need the Bridge for this new product (but it does add a lot of nice functionality and I wouldn't use the system without it).

Tap is surely better as a switch if you have hue though. This won't change scenes or colours. Though it's price is much nicer!
I'm about to buy my second tap and this is no way makes me think I should change my mind as someone who already has 17 hue light bulbs/strips etc.

Sure, Tap is good to change scenes, but Tap can't really dim--well, it can if you just make different scenes with different brightness settings, but that's a waste of a powerful device. (It can also dim if you use their experimental dimming tool, which perhaps was a precursor to this, but then you still have to waste a button on the device just for that.) The dimmer seems like it would be much better at this, plus it's cheaper, albeit apparently unable to change scenes if you have the full Hue bulbs (though if it uses the same API as Tap I wonder if it could be used for this purpose somehow anyway).
 

xraydoc

Contributor
Oct 9, 2005
10,721
5,144
192.168.1.1
Some comments on the Hue Facebook page are suggesting the new remote works only with these new bulbs and doesn't work with the Lux or the multi-color Hue bulbs.

If so, seems like a pretty significant limitation.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.